The Warehouse, a café and multi-stage theater facility operating on 7^th Avenue near the Convention Center, will close its bar and second stage in September preparatory to finding a new home, Producing Director Paul Rapport has announced.

“When we reopen in September (after a month-long August vacation in which the entire facility will be closed) we will be focusing on theater and art in our main section and on finding a new location. In the fall, the Warehouse will only be open for theater performances, art openings, etc.”

The Warehouse has been a venue for small theater, offbeat movies, and art since 1994.  A recent 500%+ increase in the property’s tax evaluation, and an anticipated commensurate increase in its real property tax, will make the site no longer economically viable for those purposes, however.  “We continue to meet with lots of different people in many neighborhoods – Columbia Heights, 9th & U, Bloomingdale/Eckington, NOMA, H St. NE, etc,” in an effort to find a new home”, Rapport said.

The Warehouse currently features Scena Theatre’s The Balcony, and the open run of Gross National Product’s Son of a Bush Saturdays at 8 and 10 p.m.  On June 30, the Warehouse will begin its “Art in Heat” outsider art exhibition, including “Tiki Party from Hell – Party or Burn!” a Lobster Boy Review show on opening night.  Art in Heat will continue through July 30. 

The Capital Fringe Festival, which has booked the venue for the Festival’s July 19-29 operation, will be unaffected by the upcoming shutdown.  “We will host over 100 performances in those 11 days.” Rapport said.

Rapport said that he and his mother and partner, Molly Rapport, are considering incorporation as either a for-profit or non-profit business.  “One thing that we are looking for right now…is someone to draft the paperwork for not-for-profit status,” Rapport said.  “We are also seeking potential investors if we go the route of a for-profit music & bar & restaurant space.”  Rapport urges interested parties to contact him at pwr@warehoustheatre.com.

DC THEATRE REVIEWS IS DEAD!   LONG LIVE DC THEATRE SCENE 

All right, it’s not that big a deal.  It’s just that this site has become so much more than reviews – it’s podcasts, news flashes, ticket deals, color and atmosphere – and “DC Theatre Reviews” just seemed kind of limiting.

So we changed our name and URL. And we changed web hosts – so those slow loads and disconnects should be a thing of the past.  We’ve changed our email too.  Reach us now at  theshow@dctheatrescene.com.

If you’ve bookmarked our site among your favorites, you don’t have to change a thing.  “Dctheatrereviews.com” will still take you to us.  Enjoy!

The staff of DC Theatre Reviews  Scene

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Meet filmmaker Dori Berinstein in Person Tuesday, June 26

It’s finally here.  The tell-all documentary Show Business: The Road to Broadway which opened last month in New York has just begun its run at the comfy  E Street Cinema and filmmaker Dori Berinstein takes questions next Tuesday following the 7:45 showing.

Find out how 2004′s Caroline, or Change, Taboo, Avenue Q and Wicked endured fund raising, rewrites, auditions, those prickly NYC critics, and the Awards ceremonies. Here’s how the NY Times described it:  ”They all had to endure scrutiny by a Greek chorus of theater critics and gossip columnists. (The rogues’ gallery includes Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood, critics for The New York Times, and The New York Post’s dapper scorpion of a theater columnist, Michael Riedel.) “ShowBusiness” is packed with telling details that the director, Dori Berinstein, was lucky to catch on camera: the “Avenue Q” composers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx hammering out a song; the “Caroline” director George C. Wolfe guiding his performers with tough yet empathetic creative notes; the “Taboo” producer and tabloid target Rosie O’Donnell urging theatergoers to paper the city with publicity materials for her show.”

Just announced -   Joel Markowitz sits down with director Dori Berinstein next week.  Watch for our podcast coming soon.

E Street Cinema is at 555 11th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004  (E Street between 10th and 11th Street) (202) 452-7672